Vietnamese woman caught sending garbage on 800-mile train journey to Saigon

By Duc Hung   November 27, 2017 | 07:28 pm PT
The woman said a local dump had been closed for upgrade work so there's nowhere for people to dispose of their trash.

A Vietnamese woman has been fined VND3 million ($132) for hanging bags of garbage on a train bound for Saigon last week, a bizarre incident which should remind everyone of the country’s serious garbage dilemma.

A video published on social media early last week shows several people from Huong Khe District in the central province of Ha Tinh, 1,280 kilometers (800 miles) north of Saigon, hanging trash bags on a train before it left the station.

Nguyen Thi Hong was the culprit identified in the video.

Hong said she sells chicken near the train station and people are always dumping bags of garbage next to her stand, so she just wanted to get rid of it.

She said a local garbage dump had been closed recently for upgrade work, leaving people no option but to dump their trash in the street.

However, Saigon itself is not without its garbage woes. The country’s largest city with 13 million people disposes of 8,700 tons of trash every day, and burying it remains the most common treatment method.

The Da Phuoc landfill site, which receives around $3 million every year to handle 70 percent of the city's trash, is being overstretched and a bad stench has been disturbing local life since 2016.

 
 
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